Grief
by RedIsNotAColour
Summary: One night during their fifth year, Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley arrive in the Hufflepuff common room to the sight of their friend, Hannah Abbott, comforting their other friend, Susan Bones. She has just received some terrible news, and only one of the group truly knows how to comfort her. One-Shot.


**A/N: I've always enjoyed taking small events from the books that many tend to overlook/forget about and write my own account of events.**

**I want to thank my friend, Laurawesome, for BETAing this fic :)**

**I hope you like it!**

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**Disclaimer: If I was Jo Rowling, I wouldn't be spending my time writing fanficitons about the characters I created, I'd be out giving money to charity and drinking my Potterhead Minions' tears.**

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"I'm just saying," Justin Finch-Fletchley smirked as his best friend, Ernie Macmillan guffawed. "Why does it take him so long to speak? It's as though the mad warlock who created him set him to slow mo, like Muggle TV remotes." Ernie snorted and almost bent double as he walked.

The two Hufflepuffs had been revising for their up and coming Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L examinations in the library, when they had been thrown out by the librarian, Madam Prince, who had noticed just how little work they had actually been doing at the late hour. It was nearly eleven o'clock and, as tired as the two boys were of revision, they were hyped up on sugar from the various sweets they had smuggled in with them.

As they had began walking down Hogwarts' many corridors to return to their common room, the topic of conversation had changed from exams to their many teachers' different teaching techniques; somehow ending up on the subject of their Potions Professor's speaking patterns.

"I think he just talks like that for dramatic effect," Ernie commented once he regained the ability to speak coherently.

"Yeah, I get _that_," Justin laughed as they turned into the short corridor that led to the kitchens. "But when he's talking about Shrivelfig's and Bubotuber Pus it's hard to take him seriously!"

Ernie nearly tripped over his own gangly legs as he chuckled. He wiped a tear from his eye as they arrived outside the pile of barrels that concealed the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room and took out his wand.

He tapped the barrels, still laughing, in what was supposed to be the tune of 'Hel-ga Hu-ffle-puff', but sounded more like 'H-el-g-a Hu-f-f-le-p-u-ff'.

The boys continued laughing, unaware that Ernie's flawed rendition of the passtune had set off Hufflepuff's defence mechanism. After a minute or two, copious amounts of icy cold vinegar precipitously flooded over them, seemingly to gush out of nowhere. The boys yelped as the freezing liquid seeped through their uniform and onto their skin.

After a few minutes of jumping about wildly to try and get out of the firing line, the mechanism stopped and they were left, hair and clothes soaked through, frozen to the bone, shivering and dripping over the miraculously dry floor.

Both boys stood in stunned silence, they had never got the passtune wrong before; they had laughed at others climbing into the common room whom had been unfortunate enough to, but it had never happened to them. They turned to look at each other, shell-shocked. The silence was abruptly broken as Ernie snorted and fell into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. Justin didn't find the situation all that funny. He hit Ernie over the head with _Defensive Magical Theory_; the only book available in the library upon the subject of Defence Against the Dark Arts since the Pink Toad's arrival at the school, which, surprisingly, was as dry as a bone.

"_Ouch! _Merlin, I'm sorry, okay?" Ernie swatted the book away and rubbed his soggy head.

Justin pushed his sopping brown hair out of his eyes and tapped the _correct _tune out on the _correct_ barrel without a word, dreading having to walk through the common room in his current state.

The barrel opened and the pair crawled in through it, bracing themselves for the catcalls and laughter of their housemates; as it was Hufflepuff tradition to mock anyone who got doused in vinegar by their own house.

Justin emerged from the other end of the barrel, only to stop abruptly. The common room was almost completely deserted. Ernie climbed out of the barrel and collided with Justin's back, having expected his friend to continue walking.

"Ouch!" both boys exclaimed as they bumped into each other.

"Justin?" Ernie asked uncertainly; he could barely see the rest of the common room around his friend. "What're you-? Wow, its empty! It's a miracle! No humiliation for us toda-"

"Not completely," Justin had just spotted two people sat by one of the fake, circular windows. Justin recognised them almost immediately as his and Ernie's friends, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones. Hannah was perched on the arm of a plush, yellow armchair, one arm around Susan, who was curled up into a ball, her knees pulled up onto the cushion and her face hidden by her long, auburn hair.

Ernie stepped past Justin. "Oh, hello, Hannah! Almost didn't see you there! Isn't like you to be up this late, what's u-?"

Hannah had looked up at Ernie's greeting, shot the boys a 'get-your-arses-over-here-right-now' kind of look and gestured towards Susan, who had shrunk even further into her chair at the sound of their entrance, with her free arm.

Ernie had stopped talking and, after sharing a wary glance, the boys padded over to the two girls, dripping a line of vinegar across the wooden floor.

Upon closer inspection, the boys realised that Susan was crying.

"Sue? What's the matter?" Ernie asked, his tone suddenly serious and his eyebrows furrowing in concern as he knelt down in front of her.

Justin, both not wanting to get vinegar on the seats and being useless in situations like this, stood next to the chair awkwardly.

Susan said nothing, her shoulders shaking as she pushed herself further into Hannah, like a shy toddler being presented to a group of strangers.

Hannah rubbed her arm comfortingly. "D-do you-er-want me to… to tell them?"

Susan nodded ever so slightly, peeping over her knees and through her fringe at Ernie and Justin; Ernie could just about see glistening, train track streaks running down her pale, freckled cheeks.

Hannah looked at the two boys sadly. "Erm-well, at half past ten…we were finishing up with revising for our Herbology OWLs when Professor Sprout arrived and asked to see Susan…" Her tone was sombre, as though she were telling them something that wasn't hers to tell; which was, no doubt, how she felt. "Sue came back five minutes ago…crying her eyes out-"

"Why?" Both boys asked in unison, their curiosity getting the better of their patience.

Hannah inhaled irritatingly slowly; the boys wanted to help comfort their friend without having to wait until morning to find out why said friend needed comfort. "Because-"

"_Because_," Susan spoke up, sniffing. Her voice was hoarse, gruff from crying, timid and small. "The school have just found out that my Aunt, Uncle and all of my cousins have been killed by Death Eaters, possibly V_-Voldemort_." She spat the final word, twitching violently, before breaking down into a painful round of sobbing.

Justin hastily sat himself down next to Ernie to stop himself from falling over.

_Voldemort?_

_You-Know-Who?_

_Had murdered their friend's family?_

Harry Potter, a Gryffindor in their year who seemed to attract fatal danger wherever he went, had ended their last year claiming the Dark Lord's return. None of them had believed him until right that second. They hadn't wanted to believe him; if they believed him, it would be real, not just some school boy's twisted fantasy.

Susan's Uncle, Aunt and cousins had all been Half-Bloods, witches and wizards. Justin had heard that, during his last rein, the Dark Lord had slaughtered countless muggles. He was muggleborn, his family were muggles. What was to stop them being murdered too?

Ernie's eyes were as wide as saucers as he reached a shaky hand forwards to pat Susan's knee gauchely; the only thing he could think to do.

"Do you-er-," Ernie coughed. "Do you know anything about-er-about it?"

Susan sniffed loudly. "No…N-nothing more th-than…I only know tha-at…that-t they were…they were k-k-killed at h-home…" she cried as she spoke and Hannah started shushing quietly, trying to calm her down.

Justin shifted along the floor to get closer, but didn't say anything. He had never lost any members of his family before, let alone half of them all at once.

Ernie had lost his grandfather two years ago, so decided to comfort Susan in the way his mother had comforted him. He gently pushed Susan's knees to the side to stop her hiding behind them. "Hey now, shh…they wouldn't want you to be sad…" He said softly, reaching his left hand forwards to wipe the tears from her cheek. She winced at his touch.

"You're c-cold," she commented thickly, looking at the two boys properly. She patted her cheek. "And wet-" she sniffed. "-and you stink."

"Oh, so that's what you get for trying to comfort a friend, eh?" Ernie retorted with a slight smile.

Susan giggled quietly for a second, fresh tears springing from her eyes and trickling down her now (Thanks to Ernie) even wetter cheek.

"Which one of you was it, then?" Hannah raised an eyebrow at the boys.

Justin simply pointed a finger at Ernie, spraying him with Vinegar.

Ernie smiled sheepishly. "…Yeah, okay…maybe it _was_ my fault…"

"_Maybe,_" Justin scoffed.

The girls laughed quietly and Hannah rolled her eyes.

The boys had almost completely forgotten about their sogginess since hearing of Susan's family. The two boys became abruptly aware of just how cold they were.

"Go and get washed up," Hannah sighed.

"No, we're okay," Ernie answered quickly, suppressing a shiver and looking at Susan worriedly.

"We aren't leaving until we know you're ok, Sue," Justin added.

"Half my family have just been _murdered_, Justin. How am I going to be OK?" Susan snapped. Justin looked slightly taken aback but didn't say anything. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you," she sighed apologetically after a second. "I'm just angry and scared and sad and I don't know what to do…" Her head rolled into her hands and she started crying again.

Hannah petted her arm. "It's okay…it'll be okay…shhh…" Susan only seemed to get more worked-up as her friend cooed and shushed her. Ernie could remember feeling exactly like he imagined Susan was right now.

"No it won't," He said quietly.

Hannah's head shot up and she glared at him. "Ernest, shut up, how is saying that helping?"

Susan peeped through her hands and she stopped crying abruptly, interested in what he was going to say.

"No, you shut up, Hannah," Ernie spoke with more determination now. "There's no point saying that it'll be okay, because no matter how much you say it, Susan isn't going to think so. How could she? She's just lost the people she loves."

Justin put a hand on his shoulder. "Ern, mate-"

"No, Justin, I'm serious. Neither you nor Hannah knows what it's like to lose anyone. I mean yeah, Cedric Diggory died last year, and that was horrible, but we didn't know him. We had only ever said about seven words to him, all of us _combined_. No matter how much people say 'it'll be fine' and that 'you'll be okay soon', you don't believe them. You can't imagine ever being okay again. How could you possibly see yourself being okay again when you're never going to see them again? When they're gone forever?" He didn't take his eyes off Susan, who was looking at him in a way that suggested he was putting how she felt into words, and she wanted him to continue. "You're going to feel like this for days, weeks, and months even, Sue. I'm not going to tell you that you'll get over it, because you'd have to be superhuman to do that. You'll feel crap for ages, but then, after a _long_ while, the pain will lessen, if only slightly. Even when you feel like you're completely fine with it one day, years later, you won't be. Sometimes you'll just be minding your own business, doing whatever, and you'll be reminded of who you've lost and you'll feel the grief all over again, but you'll get used to it eventually and you'll live your life to the full. Live it for them. I know it's hard, and I thought my gran was crazy when she told me to do this, but you should 'celebrate their lives, not feel sad about their deaths'. I was like 'Yeah, sure, okay, gran. I can _so_ do that, celebrate the life I wish they were still experiencing with me' but after a long while of being angsty and sad, I realised she was right. All you need to do is remember that they love you, and you love them, that's all that matters. As clichéd as this sounds, they'll never truly be gone as long as you love and remember them, share stories with the rest of your family, look at photos…"

He ran out of steam and fell silent. He looked at each of his friends in turn, Susan's hands were in her lap, her auburn hair pushed away from her face and she was nodding slowly, looking at him with admiration and understanding with the smallest of smiles on her face; Hannah's glare had softened to a sad smile, giving him what he guessed was a 'Alright-you-were-right' after seeing Susan's reaction. Justin's hand was still on his shoulder, but he was half-smiling at him now.

"Go and get washed up," Susan said after a minute of silence.

"What?" Justin asked. "We said we'd stay until-"

"Honestly, Justin, like Ern said, I won't be fine," She smiled at Ernie, a normal, if cheerless, smile and he smiled back. "But that's okay."

She wiped her wet cheeks as the boys stood up slowly, making their way towards the barrels to exit the common room and Hannah slid off the arm of the chair.

The boys washed all of the vinegar off themselves in the fifth year bathrooms and the girls made their way quietly to bed. Hannah and Susan hugged, Susan reassuring her friend that it was okay, and thanking her for being there for her. Susan cried herself to sleep, but didn't feel as weak as she had before; Ernie had summed up her emotions flawlessly and had told her, honestly, how she would feel from there on out, and she felt better for it.

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**Every time you don't review, an eleven year-old witch/wizard learns that they are a squib whilst waiting for their Hogwarts letter to arrive.**


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